Ontario's Environment Ministry has rejected a
plan to remove up to 1.1 million litres of water daily from the
shallow Jock River to irrigate a golf course west of Richmond.
In a decision released this week, Ontario Water
Resources Act director Clyde Hammond denied the Riverbend Golf and
Country Club a substantial increase of its existing water permit,
saying there isn't enough proof the river can handle losing that
much water.
"The Jock River is known to experience periods
of little or no flow during irrigation season," said ministry
spokesman John Steele. "The proponent has not demonstrated to the
ministry's satisfaction that the requested taking can be
accomplished without interfering with the natural function of the
Jock River."
Golf course owner Frank Chiarelli said yesterday
he couldn't comment on the ministry's decision because he had not
seen a copy of the decision.
While Mr. Chiarelli can appeal the decision to
the Environmental Review Tribunal, his opponents are already
declaring victory. Neil Barrington, president of Friends of the
Jock River, has called the irrigation plan a "water grab" that
would endanger snails, minnows, game fish, great blue herons, mink
and other animals.
"This is fantastic," Mr. Barrington said
yesterday. "This shows that people in the region really care about
this little river. As we said from the outset, approving this
application would have been terrible. The ministry has done the
right thing."
The Jock River originates near Franktown and
flows into the Rideau River near Manotick. The Tay and the Jock
are the two largest tributaries of the Rideau River.
The golf club's permit to take 227,300 litres
daily from the river for 15 days a year between June 1 and Aug. 31
expires in April 2004.
The Riverbend Golf and Country Club wanted to
extract 1,136,500 litres a day for 100 days between April 15 and
Oct. 1.
Opponents had argued that removing that much
water could periodically exceed the river's flow. In September,
the flow was measured at 691,200 litres daily by the Rideau Valley
Conservation Authority.
The next month, the Friends of the Jock River
mailed 3,000 letters to residents of the watershed, urging them to
write to the ministry about their concerns with the golf club's
application.
According to a public notice on Mr. Hammond's
decision, more than 400 people submitted comments on the golf
club's proposal and "comments received addressed similar areas of
concern as those expressed by the ministry's technical review
staff."
Ken McRae, a member of Friends of the Jock
River, called Mr. Hammond's decision "very good news for the
river." Unless Mr. Chiarelli comes up with better technical
information to support his cause, Mr. McRae said chances of an
appeal succeeding are slim.
Mr. Chiarelli has accused the Friends of the
Jock River of "sensationalism," saying his request was based on an
extensive engineering report on the river. According to Mr.
Chiarelli, a flow study taken between April 18 and Sept. 29, 2001,
showed that the minimum daily flow rate was nine times the amount
he was requesting.
Friends of the Jock River have compared the
controversy to OMYA Canada Inc.'s plan to remove up to 4.5 million
litres daily from the Tay River near Perth.
The province's Environmental Review Tribunal has
limited the company to 1.5 million litres a day. OMYA has appealed
the decision to Ontario Environment Minister Chris Stockwell and
to an Ottawa court.
Mr. Chiarelli has said the two cases can't be
more different. All the water used to irrigate his golf course
eventually returns to the Jock River watershed, he said.